2026 LitFest Schedule

This year's Merced Litfest features 50+ writers, 16 unique literary events, in 5 Downtown Merced locations, including a keynote poetry workshop and reading with award-winning fronteriza poet, Natalie Scenters-Zapico. 

Keynote events will take place on Friday, September 25 and the literary festival will continue on Saturday, September 26th from 1:00pm to 5:00pm.  

Friday, Sept. 26 | Two Keynote Events with poet Natalie Scenters-Zapico

Poetry Workshop

• 1:00-2:15pm, Ruiz Admin Bldg. 345, UC Merced Campus

Keynote Reading & Address

• 7:00pm, Merced Multicultural Center, 645 W. Main St.

About Our Keynote Speaker

Natalie Scenters-Zapico is a fronteriza from El Paso, Texas. She is the author of three collections of poetry, My Perfect Cognate (Copper Canyon Press September), Lima :: Limón (Copper Canyon Press, 2019) and The Verging Cities (Center for Literary Publishing, 2015).

Winner of Yale University’s Windham Campbell Prize (2021), Natalie has held a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation (2018), a Lannan Literary Fellowship (2017), and a CantoMundo Fellowship (2015). Her first book, The Verging Cities, won the PEN/America Joyce Osterweil Award (2016), the GLCA New Writer's Award (2016), and the Utah Book Award (2016). Her second book, Lima :: Limón, was a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Prize (2020) and shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize (2020). Her books have been reviewed widely in publications like The New Yorker, NPR, The Washington Post, and Publisher's Weekly.

She teaches in the undergraduate and MFA creative writing programs at the University of South Florida, where she won a USF 2022 Faculty Outstanding Research Achievement Award (ORAA) and a 2023-2024 McKnight Junior Faculty Fellowship. She is Inaugural Director of the Michael Kuperman Memorial Poetry Library at USF.

Saturday, September 27, 2025 | 50 Writers throughout Downtown Merced

Saturday's Litfest schedule coming soon!

Description of Saturday's Events

Litfest 2026 Readers (Alphabetical Order)

Mikias Adem is a fourth-year writing studies major at UC Merced. Heís a creative writer with a passion for all things fiction or nonfiction, hoping to create various and challenging works ranging from television, movies, or video games.

Kimberly Vargas Agnese is a Fresno-based Chicana poet, educator and activist. Kimberlyís highly-acclaimed debut, "Kadupul Flower: Poems" garnered praise from US Poet Laureate Emeritus Juan Felipe Herrera and has been acquired by the worldís leading academic institutions. Kimberly was also named a finalist for the 2022 AndrÈs Montoya Poetry Prize.

Isaac Agonoy: Born in the Philippines, Isaac moved to the USA when he was 8yrs old, along with my parents, triplet brothers and older sister. Spent a year in LA then moved to Stockton. Got into poetry after experiencing some trying times and have been writing ever since.

Kelly Bentz is a retired educator and long-time resident of Merced.  She served as a School Psychologist and/or School Administrator for the Merced City Elementary School District and Merced Union High School District from 1981 through 2015.  Dr. Bentz joined the Writing Club at the Merced Senior Center four years ago with aspirations of writing a novel.

Katelynn Bishop (she/her) is a writer, mother, and sociology professor. Her poetry has appeared in Streetcake Magazine, Rappahannock Review, Literary Mama, and Allium.

Brigitte Bowers is co-organizer of the Merced Litfest.

Mariyln Cardenas was born in Mississippi and also lived in Ohio and Louisiana before moving to Merced in 1973. She has 4 children, 11 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren.  Marilyn is a retired teacher and also worked with The Foster Care Counseling and Education program for 17 years.

Geraldine Connolly has published five poetry collections and received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work appears in many anthologies. Billy Collins noted that it shows ìan unbroken contact with the natural world and a flair for metaphoric inventiveness.î Instructions at Sunset is her latest collection.

Victorya Contreras (thesparklepotatopoet) is a left-handed creative from Lodi, CA. Her poetry explores themes of grief, identity & human connection. Victorya illuminates rooms with her words, leaving glimmers of hope that we are never truly alone

Stephanie Agnes Crockett is a sometimes journalist with over 100 bylines. Finding inspiration within faith and the food forest she tends, she is beginning to venture into the world of poetic expression. Accompanying her on this journey are mother and Chicana poet Kimberly Vargas Agnese and their mutt, Pollyanna Rue.

Lucille Lang Day is the award-winning author or editor of 21 books, including The Cosmos and Me: New and Selected Poems (Trio House, 2026). Other books include 11 poetry collections and chapbooks, a memoir, and two childrenís books. She is the founder and publisher of Scarlet Tanager Books. lucillelangday.com

Michelle Morgante Del Rio is a Merced writer and native of the San Joaquin Valley. Michelle's long journalism career has spanned local, national and international assignments for the AP, NPR and other newsrooms. She is currently working on a novel as her thesis project to complete her MFA in creative writing at the University of Texas, El Paso. As the daughter of immigrants, Michelle's work in fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry, explores the liminal spaces between cultures and generations.

Ruben Dozal Jr.  A second generation American-Mexican, he dropped out of school in 3rd grade and worked as a farm worker all of his life. He loved his work and listening to the stories of his older workers. At 50, he went to a literacy program and learned to read and write. His creative pieces tell the stories her heard and observed in the fields as well as his own life experiences.

Peggy Dulle lives in Hilmar, California with her husband, two daughters, son-in-law, and grandson and granddaughter. She was an elementary teacher for thirty-two years and has twenty-one published novels in five different genres, all with a dead body or two and a little romance. All are available on Amazon.

Billie Hanson-Dupreeís debut novel, Still Kickiní, is set in the San Joaquin Valley of California where she was born and raised. A retired educator and literacy coach, Billie calls writing her ëretirement vocation.í Billie enjoys family, attending blues and jazz concerts, exploring Bay Area trails, and traveling.

Sandra Hay: Born and raised in California, Sandy moved to Merced to teach elementary school in Livingston.  She is now retired and has become very active in the community theater scene here in Merced with her program for senior actors, Perennial Players.  Sandy also loves to write and has taken to writing down some of her memories of childhood, as well as working on some fantasy stories.

Mai-Linh Hong is a Vietnamese American refugee poet, literary scholar and associate professor of literature at UC Merced. Her poetry collection Continental Drift (Trio House Press, 2025) won the 2025 Trio Award. She is coauthor of The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice.

A.D.Hoyt is a California poet whose works reflect the mountains, deserts, cities and beaches where life remains unrepentant despite all the ways the world has been domesticated and subdued. They have presented at Litfest for the last two years, and have self-published several chat books of free-verse poetry.

Genesis Iniguez-Espinoza is a fourth year UC Merced student majoring in Writing Studies. She is a nonfiction and fiction writer that occasionally writes in other genres like poetry and mystery and is currently working on a fantasy romance fiction novel.

Tim Kahl [http://www.timkahl.com] [https://soundcloud.com/tnklbnny] is the author of six books of poems. He is also an editor of†Clade Song†[http://www.cladesong.com]. He builds flutes, plays them and plays guitars, ukuleles, charangos and cavaquinhos as well. He currently teaches at California State University, Sacramento, where he sings lieder while walking on campus between classes.

Louise Kantro, retired teacher and cat-lover, volunteers as a CASA (advocate for foster children), and has published poetry and prose in such journals as SLAB, Glimpse, Caesura, The Best of Choeofpleirn Press, The Chariton Review, and Monterey Poetry Review. Her latest chapbook is A Wild Ride (2026).

Carl Landauer, Poetry Flash contributing editor, taught history at Yale, Stanford and McGill. His book of poems on film adaptations of literature, The Reel and the Paperback: Refracted Ekphrases is forthcoming. His poems can be found in the Kenyon Review, New American Writing, Exacting Clam, VerseVille and Pembroke Magazine.

Carol League is a Merced, CA native, has a lifelong passion for short story writing and poetry, which has appeared in various literary works. As an active member of the Merced Seniors Writing Group, she is currently working on two forthcoming novels.

Analee Munoz Luna is a fourth year student at UC Merced. She is a lesbian writer that writes poetry, creative non-fiction and fiction. She is currently working on a poetry collection that is about accepting sexuality and falling in love while also losing yourself.

Kristina Marguerita is a storyteller exploring consent, respect, and human transformation through provocative short stories and real-life witnessing.

Aideed Medina is the current Poet Laureate of Fresno. She is the author of 31 Hummingbird, Editorial Xingao, Segmented Bodies, Prickly Pear Publishing, and a binational chapbook, selected poems from Segmented Bodies/ Salmos de la Sierra Madre, with Aziz CÛrdova, published by Universidad AutÛnoma de Nuevo LeÛn, Mexico.

Jess Munday is an author and storyteller. Earlier this year, she published her debut novel, A Place Between Dreams, a psychological thriller about one young manís attempt to run from himself. Originally from Merced, California, she now lives in San Francisco with her dog, Biscuit

Samina Najmi teaches multiethnic US literature at California State University, Fresno. Her memoir-in-essays, Sing Me a Circle: Love, Loss, and a Home in Time (Trio House Press, 2025), won the Aurora Polaris Award in Creative Nonfiction. Samina grew up in Pakistan and England, and has called Fresno home since 2006.

Samantha Tetangco Ocena is author of the poetry collection Hope You Blend In: Studies in Color & Light (Broadstone Books, 2025). She has an MFA from the University of New Mexico and is an Associate Teaching Professor at UC Merced.

Elvia Olea is a first-generation, indigenous activist born and raised in the Central Valley to farm-working immigrant parents. Elvia graduated from Stanislaus State in Ethnic Studies and Minored in Sociology. Her life commitment and work are towards the liberation of all peoples. Elvia is a spoken word poet, artist, body positive advocate, and mother. Elvia's inspiration comes from the beauty, resiliency and love her mother taught her.

Beverly Parayno was raised in East San JosÈ by immigrant parents from the Philippines. Her debut story collection WILDFLOWERS (PAWA Press, 2023) was shortlisted for the Northern California Book Award in Fiction; winner of an IPPY Bronze Medal in Short Story Fiction and a National Indie Excellence Award in Asian American/Pacific Islander Fiction; and a finalist for the Foreword INDIES and American Fiction awards. She was selected as a 2025 Library Laureate by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. Parayno serves on the board of Philippine American Writers and Artists and the Munster Literature Centre. She is the Director of Corporate Relations at UC Merced. She lives in the Sierra Nevada foothills, where she co-facilitates the Cameron Park Library Writers Workshop. You can find her @wildflowersbp.com.

Pedro Ramirez is a Modesto-based artist, musician, activist, and aspiring luthier. As a member of the Son Jarocho Son Sankofa Xinachtli Collective, he works alongside other members to host fandangos and workshops and to build community throughout the Central Valley and all of California; he grounds his work and music in class consciousness and struggle, revolutionary joy, and love for our community and the Earth.

Julissa Ramirez is an organizer, scholar, artivist, and member of the Son Sankofa Xinachtli, a group of intergenerational learners of the son jarocho fandango tradition in the Central Valley.

Danny Romero was born and raised in Los Angeles. His latest book Mi Vida Oakland (and other poems) won a 2024 Josephine Miles Award for Excellence from PEN Oakland. He is the author of the novel and another book of poems, Traces. He teaches at Sacramento City College.

Autumn Rivera is a trans woman who grew up in the Ozark Mountains before relocating to the Central Valley in 2020, after high school. Autumn has dabbled in writing poetry since she was a young child, and has begun taking it more seriously since college. Her poems tend to reflect her wonder for the natural world, as well as explore her journey through gender, sexuality, and Love; discussing the joys and sorrows interlaced within each of them.

Sal Pelayo enjoys journaling about his time serving in the armed forces during the Vietnam war. He spent years in Merced as a barber and has enjoyed his time in the writing group sharing and listening to othersí stories.

Benjamin Matthew Sanchez is a half-blind, self-taught artist, and Mexican-American poet. He has an MA in Mass Communication from University of the Pacific, and his poetry, Warm Tempo, was selected as a 2024 winner of the Inaugural ChapLip Library Series through Tuleburg Press. His work explores analog and digital sensations. By interweaving technology with characters, he brushes hyperstylized fantasy scenes with individuals looking for escape between vivid worlds. Poetry collectives on Instagram are fascinated by his imagery describing past identities, grief, addiction, melancholy, and unsettling narratives in nostalgia driven fictional atmospheres.

James D (Jim) Sanders is a Native Mercedian, though he’s escaped many times.  He is a 1960's guitar player, singer and song writer with the band Crystal Syphon as well as a former local elected official in Merced, and much, much more!

Chio Saetern is an American-Mien poet and community organizer whose work explores grief, healing, identity, and motherhood. She is the co-founder of Sac Poets, a community-rooted collective offering writing workshops and spoken word benefits.

Jerrold Shiroma is originally from South San Diego. A longtime advocate for translation and small presses, he edited duration press from 1997-2022, dedicated to poetryís nomadic impulses. He lives in Merced with his wife and two daughters, occasionally writing, drawing, and giving talks on Southern California graffiti and Surrealism.

Ileisha Sanders is a writer and poetóa daughter, a mom, a sister, cancer survivor, an Earthian. She is currently working on a book of poetry that feels everlasting, alongside a Lifetime movie screenplay.

Linda Scheller is the author of four poetry collections including Laurels (Prickly Pear Publishing) and The Ghosts of 16 Larkin Street (The Word Works), both forthcoming in 2026. She serves as vice president of Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center and letters chair for National League of American Pen Women's Modesto branch.

Dawn Trook writes and performs as a poet, songwriter, playwright, actor, and clown. She teaches writing and community-engaged arts at UC Merced, poetry for California Poets in the Schools, and theater in Merced Countyís juvenile justice center. Dawn lives with her large family: four cats and three dogs.

Sherre Vernon (she/her/hers) is the award-winning author of Green Ink Wings, The Name is Perilous, and Flame Nebula, Bright Nova. Sherre has been nominated for Best of the Net and Pushcart prizes and anthologized in several collections including Fat & Queer and Best Small Fictions. Read more at http://www.sherrevernon.com/publications

Anne F. Walker completed doctoral work at UC Berkeley in American Urban Poetics after beginning her poetry career in Toronto. She teaches writing at San JosÈ State University and her recent poetry collection, Ink and Ink and Flesh and Length, arrived summer 2025. The bamboo beside her house needs trimming.

Kirsten Warner-Davies is a mother of three residing in Merced. She is a stay-at-home mom who spends her days educating her children, unloading the dishwasher and making snacks. She is a communications major and musician turned poet. Poetry helps her make sense of motherhood and express her concern for the wellbeing of future generations.

Anastasia Wilcox is a latchkey kid who survived being queer and from Oklahoma. A one-time house painter, actor, chef, and now English teacher, Stash is a New Yorker at heart trying to embrace California.

Rachel Wohlander is a multi-passionate seeker of creative expression, connection, and ignition through literary, visual, and performing arts. She has loved writing since she could hold a pencil and has published poetry in Composition Magazine, Entropy Magazine and The Post Grad Journal, and was a writer-in-residence at Art Farm Nebraska.

Jesse Wolfe teaches English at CSU Stanislaus. His first full-length poetry volume, entitled ìBreathe Again: A Polyphony,î will come out this year. He is also a scholar specializing in literary modernism, currently working on his third book, which is about African American modernism and ideas of progress.

Patricia Ann Zamora (PAZ) is a visual artist, community curator, and founder of 7GENerations Coming Home ArtHouse in Livingston, California. Rooted in healing, culture, and community storytelling, her work creates spaces where creativity, connection, and collective care help individuals and communities navigate a wild and changing world with resilience, purpose, and hope.

Sponsors

Merced Litfest is organized by Brigitte Bowers & Samantha Tetangco ocena.